HCM City targets economic growth of 8.3-8.5% in 2019

HCM City is striving to develop its urban infrastructure to provide safe water, control flooding and reduce traffic congestion. (Photo: thesaigontimes.vn)

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NDO/VNA – The People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City – the country’s southern largest economic hub – has unveiled several ambitious targets for 2019.

The targets included administrative reform, e-governance, improvement in public administration, creation of a healthy business environment, encouragement for innovation, start-up, and mitigating climate change, flooding, traffic congestion, and pollution.

The city aims to achieve 8.3-8.5% growth and have 46,200 new enterprises in 2019, Le Thanh Liem, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, told a meeting on January 4 to deploy socio-economic tasks this year.

Liem said 130,000 jobs would be created and poverty would be reduced by 0.7%. Of the city’s workforce, 83% would have been trained and the jobless rate will be under 3.8%, he added.

The city will have 19 doctors and 42 beds for every 10,000 persons and 100% of the population will have healthcare insurance, he said, adding that all households would get clean water and groundwater use would be only 25% of the 2018 level.

The city will try to enter the top 20 in the Public Administration Performance Index, top 10 in the Public Administration Reform Index and top five in the Provincial Competitiveness Index.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said the city collected VND378.5 trillion (US$16.3 billion) for the State budget, 0.47% higher than the target. The figure is estimated to rise to VND399.1 trillion (US$17.2 billion).